Payment For Tertiary Schools’ Revitalisation Underway – Minister

Minister of education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, says payment for the revitalisation of the tertiary institutions in the country is underway.

Mamman also said the federal government had approved the payment of salary increase of 35 percent salary increase to academic and 25 per cent to non-academic staff in further commitment to their welfare.

He said this in Abuja on Monday at an event to mark the 60 years anniversary of the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities (CVCNU).

The minister also challenged the committee to place Nigerian universities among global institutions that use science and technology as vehicles for solving their problems.

He also said that with regards to energy, steps had been taken to power the universities through gas-powered facilities using the PPP window provided by the government.

“The scheme is intended to start with 18 universities in the first instance and the shortlisted universities will be contacted at the appropriate stage of the project.

“The centrality of the power to service delivery, research and cost savings cannot be over emphasised.

” Due to the recognition of the centrality of the education sector, a committee was set up to provide a roadmap to guide policy,  provide implementation plans, deliverables, key performance indicators (KPIs)

“And timeline was put in place and the report of the committee is expected to be submitted this month,” he said.

He noted that arrangements had been concluded for a meeting with heads of key security outfits to review and enhance the security cover of the schools.

He added that the role of the government is to continue to support the public sector universities with appropriate resources while encouraging the proper development of the private universities that are now in greater numbers.

He however urged Nigerian universities to produce competent and skilled graduates as they are expected to tap, explore and exploit other sources of funding to run the system as the convention globally to support government funding.

“The government is also keenly interested in having a stable academic calendar for appropriate learning, research, collaboration and student exchange to take place,” he added.

Celebrating 60 years of existence, the minister called on the committee to do more to bridge the gap between industries and the institutions through their leadership.

Meanwhile, the President, Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof. Emmanuel Osodeke, said the problem of godfatherism had entered the university system causing a big crisis.

Osodeke said universities should be run the way it should just like in the 60s and 70s where there was little or no interference from the government officials.

According to him, there is a need to unbundle the stranglehold of the bureaucrats on the Nigerian university system and let them run the way they were run in the past.

“We must take our universities to the universities, not to regional universities,” he said.

The ASUU chairman explained that the university’s first generation lecturers are those with first class and second class upper who want to be lecturers even when they have opportunities to be in banks.

The Chairman of CVCNU, Prof. Lilian Salami, said the event was out to discuss the gains, value which the committee had added to the system and its challenges.

Salami, while believing that the trajectory would change, promised to go to the drawing board and proffer solutions on the way forward to a promising university system.